Punjab Hospital At Fault: Centre On Reports Of 130 Broken Ventilators

Around 130 ventilators out of the total 809 life saving machines sent by the centre to the hospital in Faridkot were "faulty", officials had alleged.

Reports suggesting ventilators supplied by the union government financed from the PM CARES Fund to a state-run hospital in Punjab's Faridkot are lying unused because of technical glitches which have not been resolved are "unfounded", the centre said on Thursday. In a statement, the union health ministry said it was the lack of infrastructure at the Guru Gobind Singh Medical College (GGSMC) and Hospital that has resulted in the life-saving machines not being operational. The union government has been centrally procuring and providing states and union territories with essential medical devices including ventilators since April 2020, the ministry said in its statement. "There have been some media reports suggesting that government of India supplied ventilators (supported by PM- CARES) to GGS Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot, Punjab are lying unused as a result of technical glitches which have not been resolved due to poor after-sales support by the manufacturers," the ministry said in the statement.